


different sides

by catnipz



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Hair Brushing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post-Canon, Sharing a Bed, alcohol consumption, i love mai and she loves ty lee you cannot change my mind, this is just boys being soft, zuko being his usual angsty self, zuko is so dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25657576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catnipz/pseuds/catnipz
Summary: they are different sides of the same coin - they cannot exist except together
Relationships: Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 324





	different sides

**Author's Note:**

> hello demons welcome to my fic  
> my brain spewed this out last night at 2am and i woke up today and fixed all my spelling mistakes and decided to post it immediately. no thoughts  
> enjoy <3

Zuko and Mai have broken up many times, each stint together ending with shouting and glaring and maybe a bit of fighting and a lot of frustration. It never lasted very long, because they love each other. They share history and opinions and taste in clothes and a general disdain for loud crowded events and they make each other laugh.

Zuko and Mai are the same side of one coin, but a coin can't exist with only one side. Mai finds the other side of her coin a long time before she even realises that she needed it.

The morning Mai leaves the palace to head to Kyoshi Island they have breakfast together in Zuko's room and watch the Caldera begin to buzz below them. From Zuko's east window there is a really good view of the food market and they both enjoy watching the stall owners set out their carts of fruit or starting to prepare rice and pancakes for breakfasts. The smell of copious amounts of spices being thrown in everything often manages to reach the palace in the morning and its delicious.

They wander around the palace for a little while, Mai isn’t due to depart until mid morning, and pick up trinkets that Zuko thinks she should take with her. She accepts most of them and sends them off to be put in one of the many trunks she's taking, but draws the line at a turtle duck.

"It'll be sad if I take it away from its family," she says, softly. "And it'll probably get eaten by the Unagi, anyway."

"The Unagi wouldn't dream of getting on your bad side - one look at your scary face and it'd find a whole other ocean to terrorize." Zuko smirks at her.

Mai taps his cheek and laughs, "You say the sweetest things."

They move on from the garden after Mai tries to push him in the fountain 'for old times sake' and find themselves heading towards the docks.

They walk quietly, hand in hand, and Zuko lets his mind wander. He ends up thinking of his family and how they're all over the world and not anywhere near him. Of course they keep in touch (some a touch better than others) but he misses them almost constantly.

He hasn't seen Aang and Katara for the longest time, the pair of them first heading to the Southern Water Tribe, then to the Air Temples and then to the Earth Kingdom to oversee the restoration efforts. They haven't stopped and don't show any signs of slowing down, fuelled by their incredible love or something equally dreadful and romantic. They do write though; Katara sends him monthly updates and demands to know if he's eating, sleeping, exercising and breathing properly in her aggressively caring manner. He tells her that he's healthy and content, if a little worn out sometimes, but that she needn't send someone to harass him into relaxing like she did when he mentioned that he had once worked himself to the point of passing out from exhaustion.

Aang is a lot more haphazard in his letters. They are often both part of official comings and goings in relation to the Fire Nation citizens from the old Earth Kingdom colonies, but that really isn't the same as recieving a four foot long scroll crammed to the edges with Aang's curly scrawl, relaying everything they have done, every person they have met and every creature he has chased and/or ridden since the last letter in meticulous detail, sometimes with drawings too. Zuko responds in kind, sometimes writing well into the night to fit everything he wants to talk to Aang about onto one piece of parchment and to respond to as much of Aangs letter as he can. Those are some of his favourite nights.

Toph has hired an official scribe. She says he's for her metalbending school business, but Zuko knows he mostly writes letters to people and records things that Toph says that she deems incomparable genius. Toph's letters are probably the most fun to read, Zuko is worryingly invested in the drama between her students and Toph dishes out the best advice when he's being indecisive and stressy.

Of course, Uncle is an endless fountain of wisdom and Zuko spills his woes to him on a regular basis, but the comfort he gets from his Uncle's letters isn't as effective as a verbal kick up the ass from the toughest and scariest person he knows.

Sokka is a different game. He writes to Sokka multiple times a week, he tells him every detail of his life, they have inside jokes and he knows the things that scare Sokka and the things he thinks of when he makes wishes on shooting stars. Sokka doesn't know that Mai is leaving.

When Suki went back to Kyoshi Island, Sokka told him. He recieved a whole letter explaining that they decided to be friends, so that there was no pressure on their relationship while they were apart and they would never fall out or have complicated things come between them because they meant so much to each other. He said that maybe in the future when the Southern Water Tribe is more stable, he could go to Kyoshi Island and maybe stay and they could live happily ever after and have a thousand perfect warrior babies.

Maybe the last part was added by Zuko, but he can infer things, okay, he can _read between the lines._

Sokka laid some pretty deep feelings about some pretty serious things out on a page and rolled it up and sent it straight to Zuko, because that's who he trusts with these complex things inside him. Zuko hasn't even mentioned in passing to Sokka that Mai is leaving him. He just doesn't know how to write it in a way that doesn't sound really sad and he doesn't want Sokka, or anyone really (but Sokka especially), to think of him lonely in this great big empty palace surrounded by nothing but responsibility and politics and violently shit history.

Zuko can't put his feelings onto a page. Well, he can, but he certainly won't be rolling it up and sending it to Sokka because the majority of Zuko's feelings are fuelled into a desperate, pathetic longing for him. Which is not only completely tragic, but also starting to cause him a lot of stress because he can't stop thinking about it. Especially when he should be thinking about other things, like the absolute horror of deciding to stay loyal to his people or to Aang over the matter of Cranefish Town.

So he hasn't delved into his feelings with Sokka, and he can't figure out how to tell him in a very upbeat manner that his girlfriend has left him to go and live with _her_ girlfriend.

Apparently all of this internal strife has begun to manifest in his squeezing of Mai's hand so hard she pinches the soft stuff at the back of his arm.

"Ow!" He yelps and jumps away from her as she glares and shakes out her hand.

"I know you're gonna miss me, Zuko, but I'd like to leave with all my bones in one piece, please."

"Sorry. I was thinking about the, uh, Cranefish Town." Yes he was.

"You have your people in your heart and Aang in your head," She says, sounding surprisingly wise. "I know you love both, but you are the Firelord of the Fire Nation and your people have to come first.

He knows this, of course, but it never has been and never will be that simple. He wishes that someone would've told him that being Firelord is actually the world's most terrible job, no matter the living arrangement perks.

"Don't tell me you've been wise this whole time and you've only decided to dish it out now you're sailing a million miles away." He says.

"Don't tell me you've only just decided to listen to me now I'm sailing a million miles away."

Zuko smiles and wraps his arms around her neck as she twines hers tightly around his waist. They stand like that for minutes, until the captain of the ship tells them the ship is due to leave in 15 minutes.

Mai leans back in his arms and says, "Don't get assassinated and don't forget to eat." Then, "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." Zuko squeezes her one last time, before letting her go and watching her walk up the plank and onto the ship and away to Kyoshi Island.

* * *

It's a rare thing that Zuko has time to take a bath and he treats these occasions with an almost ritualistic reverance. He heats the water to almost scalding and creates an unholy concoction of salts and scents and oils and submerges himself and lets them all get to work on relaxing his tense-as-a-coil body.

When one of the palace servants knocks on his door not ten minutes into the bath, Zuko considers a lot of unpleasant things that might befall said servant, but then sighs deeply and shouts "Come in!" across the room.

As it turns out, this night was never destined to be one of peace and relaxation, because the servant has come to tell him that a Water Tribe ship carrying what appears to be Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe has, rather forcefully, pulled up at their docks.

After taking a moment for his poor, tired, steam-filled brain to process this news, Zuko hurls himself out of his bath, causing the servant to blush deeply, and throws on a robe and some sandals and sprints out of the palace, toward the docks.

Before he can step onto the jetty that the ship is at the end of, Zuko can hear Sokka's outraged yelling and see his arms flailing, dramatically.

"-an emergency! If I'm not wanted at the palace, I swear to Tui and La, I'll give you my boomerang. - What do you mean you don't wa- Zuko!"

Sokka's... grown, since Zuko last saw him. He isn't wearing bundles of Water Tribe furs, though he is still, of course, in blue. He has a tight fitting tank top that crosses over quite low on his chest and his arms are all out and on display and they're all... muscley and Zuko can't pull his eyes away from them for the life of him. There's tattoos.

He doesn't get long to stare though, because the next thing he knows is those arms wrapped around him and Sokka's face in his neck. He brings his arms up (not too far though because Sokka has them pinned to his sides) and holds onto Sokka's waist and lowers his chin onto his shoulder.

He's happier than he ever could've been in the bath.

After a moment Sokka pulls back and lifts a lock of hair up off Zuko's head and says "You're hair's getting long."

Zuko blanks and says "I'll cut it." even though he absolutely won't do such a thing. Sokka just laughs, his whole face brightening and his eyes crinkling as he claps Zuko on the arm. "I've missed you, buddy." He smiles at Zuko and Zuko can't help but grin back at him.

Sokka looks back at the ship and waves to one of the men who waves back and starts untying the ropes holding the ship in place. He then turns to Zuko, levels a look at him and puts his hands on his hips. Zuko has a niggling sense of dread that turns out to be actually completely right.

"Now," Sokka starts. "Would you like to explain to me why I had to find out, from my ex-girlfriend no less, that _your_ girlfriend is now also your _ex-girlfriend_ and is living on Kyoshi Island with my ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend?"

"Uh... what?" Zuko is still having trouble making thoughts in his head and he has a moment of blatant confusion, then another moment of horrible realisation of how much of an idiot he really is. Mai went to Kyoshi Island for Ty Lee, which is also where _Suki_ is, who is Sokka's best friend/possible girlfriend and who he definitely talks to _all the time_.

He takes a step back as though that will give him more time to think of something to say to make this situation go away. He comes up with nothing except stuttering, which is awful.

Sokka's expression turns less accusing and more sad. Zuko's heart feels like a heavy, painful thing. "You could've told me, y'know? I thought we, like, shared this kind of thing."

"I... didn't know how." Zuko feels a bit ashamed of himself. He got himself all twisted up in his feelings and his fear and he didn't actually consider how Sokka might feel if he found out. He needs to fix this, like, immediately.

"I'm sorry," he says, steppng toward Sokka with more confidence than he really has. "I didn't want anyone to worry about me and I'm fine so it doesn't matter and I'm sorry you've come all this way for no reason."

Sokkas’s sad look quickly morphs into a grin and he shakes his head.

"For no reason? Come on, buddy, I've not seen you for ages and there's the fire festival in a few weeks, right?" Zuko nods. "Excellent! I've got no responsibilities and the Firelord by my side. I'm gonna have the best month ever."

Zuko's eyes widen. A month? "A month?" He voices. "What about the tribe?"

"They'll be fine. They've got a new Chief now so they don't need me to be there all the time. I've just been waiting for an excuse to go somewhere fun." He turns and picks up the sack slouching behind him on the dock. "Where better than with my favourite Firelord?"

Zuko thinks he may be about to go into cardiac arrest.

* * *

Despite the constant stress of having Sokka with him at all times and exercising restraint of a previously unknown magnitude, Zuko is happier than he has probably ever been.

They sleep in Zuko's room, more often than not, even though Sokka has his own suite that could probably sleep ten people. The first few times they had stayed up talking and drinking and Sokka had fallen asleep on the sofa next to the fire in the middle of the room and Zuko hadn't the heart to move him.

Sometimes Sokka moves to the bed while Zuko is asleep and Zuko wakes up to his face, soft and slack and smushed into the pillow beside him. His hair is always loose and fanned out all over the place and Zuko might reach over and run a finger through it once or twice, but in those mellow early morning hours when the day hasn't yet started - who's to say if he does or not?

Sokka is not a morning person, but he can be when someone brings him fruit and bread and maybe fish before he's even out of his pyjamas (which have taken up a sliver of space in Zuko's grand dresser).

He always joins Zuko at the window to watch the city open up below them. It reminds Zuko of his mornings with Mai, except Sokka has taken to picking random people in the streets and regaling Zuko with tales of their (fictional) adventures and mishaps and Zuko discovers that it's possible to cry with laughter before breakfast is even over.

Any free time he has is spent with Sokka, sparring, playing games, relaxing in the gardens. One time, he's roped into giving Sokka a Grand Tour of the Caldera but they both quickly realise that Zuko doesn’t actually know his way around that well. He’s never really been able to just wander round the city, being the Firelord and all.

So they sack it off and return to the palace and Sokka spends the rest of the afternoon making Zuko look ‘citizen friendly’, which is not like Zuko at all. He ends up with a big cloak and his hair tied much lower on his head with a lot of it out and falling over his face. He has on the simplest clothes he owns and Sokka gives him a pair of his old boots and declares him ready.

They sneak out when it's dark and make their way to the liveliest part of the city, following the sounds and smells and ending up in a bright square in the west part of the Caldera. It's been decked out for the Fire Festival week in paper dragons and delicate paper flames, lanterns strung between every establishment and a huge, multicolored sun painted on the stone in the centre.

There’s restaurants and bars and people everywhere, talking and laughing and dancing and a band playing in the middle of it all and it’s incredible. Sokka immediately begins to tug Zuko right into the thick of it, which fills him with nerves, but the look of excitement and joy on Sokka’s face has him following with very little resistance.

They eat spicy noodles and smoked fish at one of the food places and drink little cups of sake and Zuko feels warm and happy and a little bit free in his head (probably the sake). It doesn’t take much convincing to get him up and dancing, to Sokka’s delight and Zuko’s horror. He just can’t find it in himself to be worried when his one hand is in Sokka’s and his other is on his waist and they’re moving together, no rhythm or style, but they’re so close, and he can smell the fruity flavoured sake on Sokka’s breath and see the tiny drops of sweat on his neck and they’re both laughing so hard they lean into one another. Sokka’s hand ends up on the small of Zuko’s back, pulling him even closer and Zuko never wants the moment to end.

They stay out well into the night, coming back to the palace with a lot less subtlety than they left, causing the guards to have a bit of a crisis and his chief of protection to scold him in the hallway about sneaking out, while Sokka tries to stifle laughter behind his back. The chief rolls his eyes and mutters “Just tell me next time, at least.” and then stalks off to his chamber for another couple hours of sleep.

The night is perfect and Zuko savours the memory for a very long time.

Responsibility is something Zuko will never escape and the days are full of them and, while he would prefer to spend them exploring the city or practicing swordbending (he wishes he didn't call it that but it's stuck with him ever since the Western Air Temple) with Sokka, he doesn't truly mind it.

Some days Sokka even joins in some meetings - he is a Southern Water Tribe ambassador, even if he is on holiday. Zuko isn't sure whether he loves this or hates it because his concentration is pretty thin on the ground when Sokka is animatedly explaining how the Southern Water Tribe has been growing rapidly with help from their Northern sisters to a bunch of overwhelmed politicians. Zuko is probably just as overwhelmed, though for a different reason. He thinks.

There are, as you might expect, days that threaten to push him over the edge. Days where no one can agree and nothing gets done, days when he finds out that his people are suffering or that they just aren't happy with him and aren't afraid to make it known. Days where decisions have to be made that do not have a right or wrong answer but have big risks attached to either side.

Sokka always knows when he's having a very bad day, he most likely isn't all that subtle about it. Although he still talks about anything and has a joke about everything else, Sokka is capable of being quiet.

They sit on the balcony together and Zuko sometimes tells Sokka what's been happening, or they talk about plans for the end of the Fire Festival or they don't talk at all. Somewhere along the line, Sokka learnt to make tea. He's pretty bad at it but he makes a cup of Jasmine whenever her thinks Zuko is in a bad mood. Zuko kind of feels like crying when this happens.

One night, he brushed Zuko's hair.

They were sat cross-legged on the floor next to the fire, Zuko reading Cranefish Town proposals and Sokka carving something out of a piece of white wood. His hair was down and hanging down in front of his face.

At some point, he must've looked up and said, "You should let your hair down, I always get headaches when I leave it up to long."

"I can't be bothered sorting it out," Zuko sighed. "It always gets tangled when I pull it out."

"I'll do it then," Sokka said and then got up before Zuko could protest.

He grabbed the nice jade comb off the dresser and knelt behind Zuko, who was trying not to set himself on fire.

Sokka was unexpectedly gentle. He tugged the golden headpiece off the topknot and began to undo the ribbon holding his hair in place. Nothing caught or snagged and Zuko wondered if he could just hire Sokka to do this forever. Eventually, after a bit of fiddling, his hair tumbled out and fell to his shoulder. It was just brushing the top of them now.

Sokka began to run the comb through his hair, picking up locks and tugging any knots out, though there weren't nearly as many as when Zuko did it himself. Everytime the teeth of the comb glided through his hair, over his scalp, Zuko felt himself loosen, his eyes closed of their own accord. He lost track of time, leaning into Sokka at his back. Zuko didn't notice at first, but when all the knots were gone, Sokka put the comb down and started threading his fingers through Zuko's hair. Gently pressing his fingertips into Zuko's head and moving them in little circles.

Zuko was so warm and so comfortable, the hands in his hair were like a drug, pulling him down into bliss with every second and he quickly forgot all of his inhibitions and let out a quiet moan.

The fingers stopped moving. Zuko froze, the reality of the situation slamming back into him. Unfortunately, Sokka started to speak first, so Zuko whipped around before he could say anything fully.

"Ha ha! I, uh, think I got a bit too relaxed!" He sounded so frantic and barely contained a wince. "Thanks for that, man, definitely needed it." He fizzled out of words and tried a friendly nudge to Sokka's shoulder - entirely out of character and he regretted it immediately and tried to morph it into something else, but ended up leaving his hand, uselessly, on Sokka's shoulder.

Sokka was staring at him, not much of an expression on his face, he looked a bit dopey. They were both kneeling, knees barely an inch apart, staring at each other. Zuko's hand was still on Sokka's shoulder. There was a bit of a moment, where Zuko forgot what was happening and allowed his hand to move up Sokka's shoulder, so his thumb was just brushing the soft skin of Sokka's neck. Zuko heard his breath stutter a little and boldly stroked his thumb down to Sokka's collar. His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest and dance the macarena in front of them.

The fire crackled next to them and jolted Zuko back to himself and he snatched his hand away, feeling blood storm his cheeks and dropped his head in utter mortification.

Zuko wondered what Sokka was thinking, then. Probably a bit creeped out, a bit annoyed that Zuko was such a mess and so awkard.

But Sokka just shook his head and chuckled and said, "Come on, lets get some sleep." And that was that.

* * *

The end of the Fire Festival ends with a big celebration at the palace. The grounds are opened and street food vendors are invited to come and provide the food and drink, there's music and dancing and performers and at the very end, a seriously huge firework display.

Inside the palace, there's a more formal gathering, which Zuko hates but it is a well-loved tradition. While the rest of the city parties outside, a sort of ball is held inside. Although a ball would imply dancing and merriment, two things that this event seems to be sorely lacking.

Politicians and Lords and Ladies and other kinds of nobles and semi-nobles all come to bitch and moan and do questionable things to each other and this year they all seem to have one target in mind: Zuko.

He doesn't think they harbour any ill-will towards him, but he almost would rather they did, since it would be so much easier to just blast them to pieces and call it a day. Instead, they have somehow all come to the conclusion that _this_ year, since the young Firelord is newly single, that they shall find him a bride to settle down and make lots of heirs with.

They have picked their champion well - a very beautiful girl called Yanli, the daughter of a wealthy Lord of Itsujima, the largest island off the coast of the mainland. There has been many disputes with this island and the people on it, rich in resources, they have often campaigned for autonomy throughout history, although this was put on hold during the war. In the short time since it has ended, there has already been rumors and whispers of dissent on Itsujima.

It makes sense, marry a Lady of Itsujima and secure peace. A wonderful idea, had Zuko any inclination to marry.

But he plays the part he needs to. He takes a turn around the room with the girl and laughs at the terrible stories he is told, he is polite and friendly and as charming as he can muster and he spends a good deal of time with Yanli and her father. She is pleasant enough, though he can tell she is about as excited as he is about the match.

Finally, just before the firework display, Zuko begs off from them and hurries around to find Sokka. He'd made a special request to add a blue section to the usual reds and oranges and yellows that light up the sky, just because he can.

When he spots Sokka, he isn't where Zuko might've thought (in the middle of everything, shining like the sun), instead he is leaning up against a wall behind the banquet tables, looking for all intents and purposes, like a sulking child.

Zuko stalks over to him, about to demand who pissed him off, when Sokka spots him and his eyes go wide, then he frowns deep and walks off in the opposite direction. Zuko's stomach drops like a lead weight and he immediately goes into panic mode, sirens ringing in his ears and he flies after Sokka, out of the hall and through the palace.

He goes to the garden Zuko used to play in as a child. It's not open to anyone else here, it never is. Zuko follows him in and then stops, too unsure as to what he's done to upset Sokka.

"Have I done something to upset you?" he asks quietly. He can hear his heart pounding so loudly he's sure Sokka can hear it too.

Sokka turns to him, looking furious. "I heard one of your advisers saying that girl was chosen as your match. What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"What?" Zuko is confused, this isn't what he expected at all, which only serves to worry him even more. "It's just the nobles and stuff, like, they want me to marry and uh, she's the best candidate? I know it's a bit archaic, but-"

"Archaic? It's fucking ridiculous!" Sokka throws his hands up and Zuko is stunned. He's never heard Sokka swear before.

"I know, but that's how it works," Zuko tries to explain. "It's one of those that has political reasons, right? She's from Itsujima."

"It doesn't matter where she's from!" Sokka's flinging his arms about, as he usually does, but Zuko can see how tense he is right now.

"So why are you so angry? What did she do?" Zuko's getting frustrated.

"Nothing! She did absolutely nothing wrong!" He yells, striding up to Zuko and prodding a finger in his chest. "It's you! How could you just- Do you like her? Were you always planning on marrying some rich girl from whatever land you need?"

"Of course I wasn't!" Zuko grabs the wrist thats poking a finger at him, anger bubbling up in his blood. "How can you say that? Do you know me at all?"

Sokka's face screws up and he opens his mouth to shout something back, when a loud crack echoes across the sky and they're suddenly bathed in red light.

They both whip their heads upwards, suddenly transfixed by the light show, quarrel momentarily forgotten. The lights burst across the sky and for a few minutes everything is red and fiery and it reminds Zuko of Sozin's Comet, but then the reds and oranges turn to blues and silvers and everything is so light again.

He turns to Sokka who's face is slack with wonder and watches him instead of the fireworks for the rest of the display, even though he's really mad at him right now.

The lights fade after several minutes and Sokka turns to Zuko who is now very nervous.

"Those were Water Tribe colors." Sokka states, though Zuko knows it's a question.

"I asked them to add the blue," he mumbles. "I thought you'd like it."

Sokka doesn't say anything back which does nothing to help Zuko's nerves. He's still holding onto Sokka's wrist from earlier. He looks at their hands, then to the side at the garden, then looks at their feet, just anywhere that isn't Sokka's face because he really just doesn't know what he's going to find there.

But then he feels a hand at the back of his head and fingers gripping his hair and his eyes shoot to Sokka's face which is suddenly very, very close. He stops there, face a hair's breadth away from Zuko's, and then so slowly, moves forward to touch his lips to Zuko's.

For a moment they are still, lips only just pressed together, and then Zuko's brain finally does something and he drops his hands to Sokka's waist, pulls him closer and kisses him properly.

He's still awkward and their noses bump, but Sokka's mouth is warm and his lips are soft and moving against his own and he thinks life might never get any better than this. Then Sokka slides his tongue into Zuko's mouth and life gets way, way better.

His hands tighten on Sokka's waist, fingers gripping the fabric for dear life and Sokka has one had tangled in his, now loose, hair and the other holding his neck, placing burning handprints on the skin there. He loses himself a bit here, desperately trying to get closer to Sokka, feel the heat of his body pressed right up against his own.

He then realises that things are getting a bit uncomfortable in the pants region, and reluctantly pulls back, leaving both of them panting for breath. Zuko dips back in for another chaste kiss and then takes two steps back.

"I was never considering that girl, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you," he says. His brain is drunk on happy things. "I did think you were going to marry Suki one day, though."

"I- what? Suki? We broke up ages ago, though. I told you this!"

"Yeah, but I thought that between the lines you were saying it was only temporary and one day you were gonna go and raise warrior babies with her."

"That's so dumb, Zuko," Sokka starts giggling. "I definitely love you too."

Zuko feels like he's having an out of body experience. "That's good. Is this why you were so mad before?"

"I'm sorry," Sokka says. "I was so jealous, which is not cool, but I was and I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You're the only person I'd ever really be happy with."

Sokka looks at him with a bit of a watery smile and then starts digging around his warm, baggy pants until he finds what he's looking for and tosses it at Zuko.

It's a necklace, like the one Katara wears, except the band is black with thin red edges. The little charm is black stone with three lines carved along the bottom and three peaks of a flame above them.

"It's a betrothal necklace," Sokka says. "I made it for you a week ago. You don't have to put it on now, I mean, it's so early, but I want you to know, I'm in this for good."

Zuko is overwhelmed. He steps forward into Sokka's space and folds himself down a little, so his head is on Sokka's shoulder and he presses his face into Sokka's neck. Sokka wraps his arms around him and they stay there for a long time.

Sokka is nothing like him, he loves noisy crowds and he has no fashion sense and they disagree all the time. They are two different sides of the same coin, they cannot exist except together.


End file.
